Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish (a) the amount paid to Bank Mellat to settle their recent lawsuit against the Government and (b) how much the Government spent on defending the claim.

Bank Mellat’s claims have now been concluded and the amount paid in respect of the settlement was €91,352,709.35. HM Treasury made a payment of £1.01m in 2013/14 towards Bank Mellat’s legal costs following Bank Mellat’s previous success in the Supreme Court. Beyond this payment and the cost of settlement, the total HM Treasury costs associated with defending the Bank Mellat case as at 14^th October are £19,715,202.91. This sum was spent on a variety of legal and expert costs over the course of 10 years defending the case, following Bank Mellat’s original claim of damages of $4.3 billion.